Prior to the availability of commercially-produced bread sold in grocery stores and supermarkets, householders routinely baked bread at home. Such baked bread was sliced simply by holding the loaf with one hand while cutting the desired slice with a knife. While generally effective, this method did not allow for uniformity in thickness of a particular slice or for uniformity of thickness slice to slice.
Because of these problems, various devices have been developed to aid in the cutting of bread and other bakery products. For example, a bread cutter is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 280,796 (Chapman) and comprises a base and a cutting-bed having loaf-holding and knife guiding uprights. One of the uprights is spring-biased toward the other so that loaves of differing width could be held and cut. A difficulty with the cutter of the Chapman '796 patent is that it did not fold for storage and, thus, it occupied a good deal of space on a counter or in a cupboard.
An apparent effort (of arguable success) to provide a bread cutter that occupied less storage space is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 318,694 (Chapman). Such cutter has a two part cutting bed with the parts hinged together at their inner sides. The loaf-holding uprights are firmly secured on the outer sides. While the cutter of the Chapman '694 patent allowed a degree of folding, there is insufficient range of motion to permit compact storage of the bread cutter.
Other work in the field of bread slicing guides is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 1,072,450 (Hamblin) which shows a bread slicer having loaf-holding uprights separately hinged along respective sides of a cutting base. The uprights are moved into the cutting position and held in place by a spring hooked across the top of the loaf of bread. As with the cutter of the Chapman '694 patent, however, this device only provides for relatively-limited rotation about the pivot axis and thus does not permit particularly compact storage. And to the likely aggravation of the user, the Hamblin slicer needed a degree of "setup" and manipulation before it could be used.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,398,192 (Scheminger) discloses a slicing board with a cutting base and two retaining barriers, one hinged along each side of the base. The barriers could be folded in on top of the cutting base and on one another. The barriers are not self-locking nor do they automatically remain in positions appropriate for bread slicing. Rather, the user must insert a support between the barriers.
With the advent of commercially-baked, pre-sliced bread and grocery stores stocking a variety of such bread, demand for bread cutters and guides declined. There was simply no longer any need for them.
However, with the increased popularity of home bread making appliances, there is a renewed need for a durable device that will allow for the safe, uniform slicing of a whole loaf of bread. And the need for compact storage and ease of use remains.
While such needs persist, not all designers of bread slicing guides have been attentive to them or, perhaps, even aware of them. For example, PRESTO.RTM. (National Presto Industries, Inc.) offers a bread-slicing system which is rigidly-constructed and apparently incapable of being folded. And such system has a rear barrier which is understood to be of one-piece construction.
An improved bread-slicing guide which conveniently folds for storage, which is light in weight, durable, substantially impervious to dishwashing soap, free of sharp edges and which automatically retains its foldable guide members in an upright or folded position would be an important advance in the art.